The present invention pertains to an apparatus for cleaning rotary buffing pads of the type mounted on and driven by a powered buffing machine. The present invention constitutes an improvement on the apparatus disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,786,333 and 4,983,221.
In the devices shows and described in my two above identified patents, an annular enclosure is sized to receive and enclose the buffing pad while it is mounted on the buffing machine with the enclosure adapted to be placed on top of a reservoir or container holding a liquid cleaning solution. The lower floor of the pad enclosure is provided with a number of rotatable cleaning wheels which are engaged and rotated by the driven buffing pad. In addition, each of these prior art devices includes a pump suspended from the underside of the enclosure floor and immersed in the cleaning solution in the container with conduit means to deliver the cleaning solution up through the floor where it is sprayed against and distributed over the face of the rotating buffing pad. In my earlier patent, the pump is driven by an electric motor powered from a separate external source. In my more recent patent, the pump is driven by a drive wheel rotatably mounted on the pad enclosure floor, driven by the rotating pad, and having a driving connection to the impeller of the pump mounted below.
The apparatus described in each of my prior patents provides a very effective means of cleaning rotary power driven buffing pads. However, in both of the described devices, the pump drive means are somewhat complex, requiring a separate electric motor in the former and a rather complex drive linkage in the latter. In addition, both prior art devices include an integral pad enclosure which because of its fixed depth, limits the thickness of buffing pad which can be accommodated and effectively cleaned.
The apparatus of the present invention is intended to improve on the foregoing deficiencies without sacrificing any aspects of the simple and effective pad cleaning provided by my prior devices.